Explore Bruges

The Bruges Beer Experience is a beer museum on the upper floors of the former post office at the corner of the Markt and Breidelstraat in Bruges, a building by Louis Delacenserie opened in 1891. Opened in 2014, it traces beer from Mesopotamia to the brewers of Bruges, the Trappists and modern brewing, with a tablet guide in ten languages and a tasting bar.

The Frietmuseum is a museum of the potato and Belgian fries, opened in 2008 by Eddy Van Belle in the Saaihalle on Vlamingstraat in Bruges, a Gothic hall of 1399 that served Genoese merchants in the 15th century. Its three floors cover the potato's origins in Peru, the history of fries and the tools used to cut and fry them.

The Gruuthusemuseum is housed in the 15th-century town palace of the lords of Gruuthuse, beside the Church of Our Lady. Restored in the late 19th century, it shows applied arts from the 15th to the 19th century, including Flemish tapestries, lace, silver and a terracotta bust of Charles V, and its private oratory looks into the church.

Old St. John's Hospital was founded in the mid-12th century beside the Church of Our Lady and cared for pilgrims, travellers and the sick until 1977; its buildings are among the oldest surviving hospital buildings in Europe. The medieval wards now hold a museum of the hospital's history and works by Hans Memling, and the old pharmacy can also be visited.

The Volkskundemuseum is the folklore museum of Musea Brugge, housed since 1973 in a row of modest workmen's houses on Balstraat in Bruges, the former Schoenmakersrente. Its rooms recreate a village classroom, a grocer's, a pharmacy, a confectioner's and craft workshops, and the visit ends in the museum's own tavern, De Zwarte Kat.